GM

GM’s Maven car sharing company is expanding its Gig service across the U.S., with six new major urban markets to be added to the locations where the short-term rental service aimed at gig economy workers is available. Those include L.A., where it’s going live today, as well as Boston, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C. this fall, with Baltimore and Detroit to be added some time… Read More

GM has been doing a lot to try to make it easier for developers to create software for use in their vehicle infotainment systems. Back in January, it opened up access to a wide range of data points from the vehicle, and made it possible to develop using a simulator on the desktop, instead of having to use very specific developer hardware based in Detroit.
Now, GM is introducing GM Dev Client… Read More

GM’s Maven car-sharing service debuted Gig in May, a new offering on the platform designed specifically for gig economy workers. The idea is that people can rent cars for as little as a week at a time, with an all-in cost that covers insurance, maintenance and free charging for EVs. Now, Gig is kicking off in San Francisco, after its initial rollout in San Diego.
The SF launch includes… Read More

The tech used in making cars drivereless can also be very well suited to building HD maps of roads and cities, which are then in turn used to make driverless cars better. So it isn’t surprising when companies working on autonomous tech also focus on building their own high-definition maps, which go beyond regular maps by fusing LiDAR, radar and visual information for a very accurate… Read More

Facebook hires 3,000 people to combat the disturbing videos and live videos that have been popping up on the site, Hulu launches its live TV service, yesterday was not too good of a day for tech stocks and GM launches GM Maven to help on-demand drivers rent cars for $229 a week. All this on Crunch Report. Read More

Automakers GM and Honda are teaming up on a new venture to jointly manufacture hydrogen fuel cells at scale, with plans to start mass production by 2020 and a combined investment of $85 million split evenly between the two companies dedicated to the effort. Both GM and Honda intend to use the resulting hydrogen fuel cell system in future products, according to the companies.
The joint… Read More

The Bolt EV is GM’s answer to Tesla’s rising influence, and it’s impressive by all early accounts. The affordable electric car with a class-leading range isn’t the sum of GM’s interest in electric vehicles, however – it’s just the beginning. GM plans to release a range of electric vehicles based on the Bolt platform, but they won’t be announced… Read More

Latest Crunch Report

GM has made a number of big acquisitions and investments in the past few years. It picked up self-driving company Cruise earlier this year and dropped $500 million into Lyft, Uber’s biggest competitor. For the most part, GM acknowledges that it needs to figure out how to tap into new aspects of the automotive experience, CTO Jon Lauckner said.
But all these companies start somewhere. And… Read More

GM has invested in China’s Yi Wei Xing, a car sharing tech platform provider that’s responsible for Feezu, a timeshare rental car service similar to Zipcar, as well as providing the backend for rental companies looking to provide their own car sharing service.
GM’s equity investment in Yi Wei Xing is a strategic one, which could help the carmaker eventually expand its own… Read More

Close partners GM and Lyft were apparently nearly even closer: The Information reports and TechCrunch has separately confirmed that the carmaker expressed its interest in purchasing Lyft, going so far as to specify a price it would’ve been wiling to pay. Lyft apparently explored what other strategic partners might be offering before deciding to say no to GM and opt instead to raise… Read More

GM is putting its Cruise acquisition to good use in Arizona: The self-driving car startup acquired by the automaker in March is trialling its tech on public roads in Scottsdale. Cruise tweeted about the autonomous testing expansion, which uses Chevrolet Bolt all-electric vehicles, and which adds to the core fleet of testing vehicles already operating in San Francisco.
We’re testing… Read More

No wheels used to mean no way to be a driver for a car-sharing service, but GM and Lyft’s Express Drive is one way around that limitation. The program sees GM offer all-in vehicle rentals to Lyft on a sliding fee scale depending on usage. Now, it’s expanding to California and Colorado, beginning in SF, LA and Denver.
GM and Lyft teamed up on Express Drive following a strategic… Read More

If you’ve ever had to hold a wrench in place for any length of time exerting a decent amount of force, you know it sucks. NASA also knew it sucked, and doubly so when you’re floating in space, so they created the RoboGlove, a battery-powered force-multiplying glove that lets you add some power and longevity to your grip. Now, RoboGlove is coming to earth-bound humans thanks to… Read More

A few months ago, many people learned about San Francisco-based startup Cruise Automation for the first time. After raising around $19 million and quietly building sensors for self-driving cars, the company got acquired by General Motors. So the startup must know a thing or two about the future of cars. That’s why Cruise founder and CEO Kyle Vogt will join us on stage at Disrupt SF 2016. Read More

Rideshare wars just got even more interesting. Uber has confirmed a strategic investment and auto leasing deal from Toyota.
“Toyota is a global leader in the automotive industry and Toyota vehicles are among the most popular cars on the Uber platform worldwide,” Uber said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We are proud to partner with Toyota in a variety of ways, including… Read More

I’m impatient to see breakthroughs in cars. I have high expectations for what Apple will do and respect for what Tesla has already done. I agree with Peter Thiel on the we-were-promised-jet-cars-but-got-140-characters thing, and with Larry Page who worries that Silicon Valley doesn’t throw the ball down the field enough. Read More

Two months after General Motors announced a $500 million investment in transportation startup Lyft to work on autonomous cars, the pair are launching their first service together. No, it’s not a self-driving car fleet (yet); it’s a short-term rental program called Express Drive: GM will provide all-in rental cars to Lyft drivers, who will pay between $99/week plus mileage… Read More